Coffee Coaching is very excited to release our most recent Not-For-Profit Extreme IT Makeover! The latest Makeover recipient is InterConnection, who was nominated by our Seattle based partner, SWAT Systems. InterConnection is committed to the reuse & recycling of electronics for social good; specifically they provide computers and communication technology to nonprofits and underserved communities around the world.

InterConnection first came to SWAT’s attention when they were looking for the best solution for recycling the abundance of retired hardware they received from clients. InterConnection’s process of repurposing and refreshing hardware to send to charitable organizations in the US and worldwide (and recycling any hardware that cannot be repurposed) is 20x more earth friendly than traditional recycling. Not only is this process better for the environment, it also allows InterConnection to help many non-profits, schools, libraries, and low income groups, benefiting more than 1,600 US based non-profits in the past year alone. Many of the organizations that InterConnection donates to would not have access to computers and the internet otherwise. InterConnection also focuses on disaster relief and provided computers following the earthquakes in Japan, Chile, and Haiti, as well as the flooding in Pakistan.

For this Extreme IT Makeover, HP, Microsoft, and Intel® donated hardware and software in order to create InterConnection’s ideal IT infrastructure, which was designed and installed by SWAT Systems. “This Makeover comes at a critical junction for InterConnection. Their infrastructure was older, refurbished, client machines, and the back end was fragmented into six separate donated servers, any of which could fail at any time,” explains Noel Davenport, SWAT Systems. The situation in the office was not any better. In order to provide the best systems for the non-profits they helped, in their own office, InterConnection used dated, refurbished laptops and desktops, most of which could not run many of the resource intensive programs needed for their daily operations. In addition, a mix of various outdated versions of Office and free web tools meant they had no easy way to share calendars or to control and share documents.

Consolidating the existing fragmented network of computers and servers into a robust unified infrastructure was the first step of InterConnection’s makeover. To replace the six servers they had, InterConnection received an HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Server powered by two Intel® Xeon ® Processors. With the DL380p built with Intel® Xeon ® processors InterConnection will get the reliability, security, and performance they need now and in the future. Running Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard edition with stacked licenses gives InterConnection 6 virtual machines so they will have plenty of capacity and minimized latency while utilizing Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) allows SWAT Systems to remotely manage InterConnection’s new infrastructure.

In the office, InterConnection received several HP Elite Family Products including Elite Ultrabooks and the Elite 2-in-1 system, the HP EliteBook Revolve. The ultra-thin and durable Revolve gives InterConnection a full-performance Windows 8.1 EliteBook that can transform into a tablet letting them choose what works best in any situation and letting them enjoy mobile freedom throughout the office and warehouse without sacrificing performance. With all of InterConnection’s devices now running Microsoft Windows 8.1 they will be able to get more done right from the start. In addition, Office 365 allows them to standardize calendars and share/access documents from the cloud.

This makeover will benefit InterConnection in numerous ways. Oso Martin of InterConnection explains, “For us, production is all about numbers, and anything that we can do to speed up the process is a great solution for us.” With new hardware and software from HP, Microsoft, and Intel®, the IT infrastructure SWAT Systems designed will take InterConnection to a completely new level for meeting their mission. This makeover will support InterConnection’s global expansion plans and future proof the growth they are anticipating.

For more information on HP, Microsoft, and Intel® products, or to see more Extreme IT Makeovers, be sure to join the Coffee Coaching community by following us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn.